


Fool-proof

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Dorks in Love, Established Relationship, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Kissing, Lots of kissing, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, a match made in heaven, eren is big sad baby, jean is big sappy baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22639438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A collection of Eren and Jean being caught casually kissing each other and the 104th (+ superiors) being confused but also supportive.
Relationships: Jean Kirstein & Eren Yeager, Jean Kirstein/Eren Yeager
Comments: 14
Kudos: 115





	1. Cushioned Fall

The first time he saw it happen, he was caught completely off-guard.

As far as training days go, it had been a fairly uneventful weekday thus far. They sparred, flew around a bit on their gears, gathered for meals, and showered before hopping into their bunks, bidding one another goodnight and killing the lights. At around eleven was when Bertolt’s nightly acrobatics started up, the telltale cry of bed-frame and Reiner’s mumbled complaints marking its commencement. Twelve was the hour of Connie’s paralysingly violent snoring to take the front stage - obnoxious at first but the soldiers learn very quickly to let the sound drone out after the first ten minutes.

By the time one came around, Armin would usually find himself in the land of the unconscious if not dancing the very lip of it, but all plans of a fitful night of sleep was tossed out the window when he heard the bunk below him groan at its wooden frames, notifying the blonde that he was not the only sleepless soul tonight.

His childhood friend occupied the space below him and was notoriously known for his cat-like sleeping habits: plotted throughout the day and spanning roughly up to two hours. So it didn’t alarm Armin when Eren rose to his feet and left on bare feet, grinning at the brown nest of hair as it hobbled out the door.

The blonde was well on his way back to dreamland when another sound poked at his cheek, this time a voice.

“Eren?” It took Armin a moment to realise that it belonged to Jean, the usual sneer absent from his tone.

Armin remained as still as stone as Jean retraced Eren’s example out the door, hair slightly less unkempt but still wild. When the door was shut for the second time Armin was left thoroughly bemused.

The next few seconds were impossibly quiet, even Connie’s snoring having seized its abuse on his ears until it was breached by two fluttering voices bleeding from the other side of the door.

“-ared. What if this is all for nothing?”

Eren. He sounded so small, weak even, compared to the passionate speeches he’d occasionally break into when provoked by anyone (read: Jean) voice booming and confident. But not now. His voice would break on certain syllables and the words trickled sparingly from his lips like he’s trying to hold back from unleashing the tide of emotions but droplets still managing to slip from the cracks.

“Then we’ll have to enjoy the world as it is.”

“What if we die for nothing?”

A beat. Then.

“Come here.”

What followed next was some brief shuffling and Jean’s steady voice but it was too quiet for Armin to hear anything but a drone of soft sounds. So he made his quiet descent down from his cot and huddled close to the door to the barracks, squinting fiercely until the picture two cowered figures coming to form one shape in the moonlight fabricated before him.

Jean had an arm wound protectively around Eren’s shoulders, the latter having difficulty standing upright as sobs shook his entire frame. Even having come to the door Armin still couldn’t make out what Jean was saying, but the slow and deliberate way his lips formed every vowel was telling that he was, or at least trying to, comfort Eren.

Which, alone, was a notion Armin had a hard time wrapping his head around, what with the ongoing rivalry between the two teens that had lasted seemingly forever, but that was nothing compared to the absolute bewilderment the next two moments caused him.

They pulled apart briefly, Eren scrubbing at the wetness on his cheeks and Jean rubbing soothing rings between his shoulder blades, only to give them the distance to stare at one another. Their mouths never uttered any more words and yet a silent consensus settled upon the two as the trainees tipped closer.

Their lips meeting in a gentle embrace.

Armin barely suppressed the gasp that threatened to give away his position. The seconds that followed was a flurry of limbs and blankets as he retreated into the safety of his bunk, his glowing face deep in his pillow by the time the door opened again. This time, two sets of feet pattered into the barracks, one stopping at the cot below him and the other venturing a little further.

That night, Armin eventually fell asleep, but not before hearing the hushed exchange of ‘goodnight’ between the two boys, wondering how it was possible to pack so much affection in a seemingly innocent word.

The morning after Armin decided to confront his friend. He asked Eren how his nightmares were nowadays only to be met by a bright red complexion and stuttered attempts to answer the simple question.

“They, um, aren’t so bad anymore."

Armin smiled.


	2. Evaluations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin can't help but get Mikasa in on the secret, but the critic inside her can't help but pick up on a discrepancy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is less smoochy cute and more plot-driven but I promise fluffiness in upcoming chapters!  
> There is still a kiss so don't hurt me too much.

“Really?”

“I saw it, Mikasa, on the lips.”

Mikasa reclined against the wall, wearing her eyebrows high on her forehead as she chewed on the information. Her eyes flitted to the couple in question who were currently up receiving their scoop of undefined goop onto their respective plates, each trying and failing to hide a grimace.

“Hey, why did you get more?”

“Maybe my winning smile wins me more than girls in my bed, Jaeger.”

“Winning smile? I’ve seen horses twice as handsome as you.”

“So you admit I am, at some degree, handsome?”

She shook her head as she watched a sizeable portion of peas ricochet off Jean’s handsome face.

Their relationship, at least from Mikasa’s point of view, had been anything but peachy, let alone romantic. The first few months were an absolute nightmare as she had had to physically drag Eren away from fights before they escalated to throwing bystanders at each other. They spent every waking hour together constantly throwing fists if the insults weren’t quite landing and Mikasa couldn’t see the end of it.

That is until this very day.

With apparent evidence that their dynamic is anything but antagonistic, it opened Mikasa’s eyes to notice little changes in their behaviour. They still fought whenever conversations would sail in the wrong direction, as they often do, but rarely does she see actual physical violence. A playful punch to the bicep, a kick under the table, and so on, but never full-fledged wrestling matches like their younger years in the garrison. They were stepping into the right direction and, as his sister and friend, Mikasa couldn’t be happier to see Eren grow with Jean.

But never had her observations crept into the realm of romance. Their interactions were fleeting. teasing at best, but nothing monumental that may entail an intimate relationship.

“You mentioned it was at night when you saw them; it was dark and maybe you had mistaken a random couple who happened to look like them.”

“Looked like who?”

Mikasa started as she felt a new presence at her side - Eren. He had his nose buried in his bowl as he scarfed down god-knows-what into his mouth, eyes wide and curious as he awaited his answer.

“U-um, well. We-.”

“God, you don’t have to eat like a titan, too.” It was Jean this time, glaring from the seat parallel to Eren’s. With minor shuffling he produced a handkerchief from his back pocket and leaned his long torso across the table, wiping at the residue with surprising care.

Of course, Eren didn’t sit still and accept this treatment and made a big show of swatting the ash-blonde away, his bowl and its contents winding up on the floor as a result.

“This is all your fault! What would Captain Levi say?!”

“My fault! You were the one slobbering like a baby! I was trying to help.”

“Oh yeah, look at how much you helped.” The last word emphasised with a finger jabbing at the slow-spreading mess on the floorboards.

“Well, how was I to know that you’d throw a tantrum like an actual brat!” This seemed to set Eren off as he launched himself across the table and gripped on the taller boy’s shoulders.

Mikasa sighed and leant into Armin’s shoulder with a self-assured grin, eyes still trained on the spectacle unfolding before them.

“You’re telling me they’re a thing?”

“I’ll prove it.”

Oh?

\---

Oh.

Mikasa watched with unwavering attention, disbelief keeping her in a strange trance as she peered through the sliver of a gap made by the unlatched door. She could practically feel Armin’s self-satisfied grin sear itself into the side of her face as she watched the boy she thought she knew all her life cradle a fair hand.

“Again, I didn’t mean to hit that hard. It was just that you-”, but Eren caught himself and deflated in his small stool, “No... I’m sorry.”

“Hey, it’s my fault too.” Mikasa nodded.

“But you tried to help, but I was an ass and threw a fit. Like I always do...” She could tell that Eren was beginning his slow descent into self-deprecation, his habit of picking at the hem of his shirt starting to show, but it seemed she wasn’t the only observant one.

As if synchronised with her sisterly instincts, Jean chose that moment to tug Eren closer by their tangled fingers and tucked a kiss behind his blushing ears.

She held her breath.

“I can take responsibility for my actions, you angry baby. I provoked you, you reacted. You were an ass, I reacted. It’s even, yes?” blink and she would have missed the tender smile that accompanied Jean’s words but her mind was too busy with the previous gesture to notice it.

She simply couldn’t process that Jean, tall and arrogant yet strangely humble Jean, had just kissed her brother like it was the most natural thing second to breathing and neither boys hesitated or pulled away in disgust. She didn’t know how to feel about what that implied: either her step-brother was too oblivious to notice, and if so she sympathised with Jean, or they kissed so often that it was just second nature to them.

For Jean’s sake, she hoped it was the latter but it was too brief for Mikasa to let herself be convinced.

“Are you convinced?” Armin whispered, reminding her of his current presence.

“No.” A tired sigh escapes his lips as they leant away from the door and reclined against the adjacent wall. “But I do believe there’s at least something akin to affection on Jean’s side.”

Armin throws up a pair of eyebrows at this. “I... never really thought about that.” His gaze landed on the floor between his feet as he crumpled his face in deep thought. “Now that I think about it, Jean was the one to initiate the kiss when I saw them too.”

“If what you saw was actually them.”

“Well, now you’ve seen that the possibility that it indeed was them is quite high.” Mikasa nodded.

That evening, before the soldiers split up to go to their respective barracks, Armin and Mikasa promised themselves at least one more day to get to the bottom of Eren and Jean’s relationship. Eren’s chronic naivety took them at least a year collectively to get to grips with so it wouldn’t be of any surprise if such obliviousness had possibly misled Jean.

Armin found it quite humorous that Mikasa would ever help another soul that wasn’t Eren, let alone Jean, but he decided to keep that to himself.

With their routinely hug before bed, the two parted and slept in their bunks, giddy and a touch worried with what tomorrow holds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudos and comments! They keep me motivated to write, like now, when I'm hit with a wave of brilliance at 01:17 am on a Saturday. This is my belated Valentine's Day gift to you.


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